AAR 1944 France: Third Game by Bagration

A battle report or After Action Report (AAR) for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum (IABSM), the company-sized wargaming rules for WW2 from the TooFatLardies. A one-off game or scenario set in France in the year 1944.

This is my third and final game of "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! v3". I wanted to find a 15mm WW2 game that was easy to learn, fun to play and had a skirmish feel too it. I played it once before at a friend's house, and although it was a small game and I got soundly beaten, I did like it. I do remember that it took a long time to play though, but I put that down to learning the rules while playing.

I played two games after that with my wife and I have yet to win a game (that's 0-3 for me so far). I have been the allies twice and Germans once. This game was going to give me the chance to play the SS.

Its a much harder game to set up than, lets say FoW because you don't have a "points" system worked out before hand. You do have Company/Platoon set-ups, but it seems like a rule set made for more "historical" scenarios. Therefore, I had to play the other games, to get a feel for how the forces matched up.

In Game 1, I was attacking a bridgehead with a British/American armoured force. I got soundly beaten by a defending German SS group. I learned that an attacker is at a large disadvantage, as he had to spend most of his actions in moving, while the defender could spend most of theirs on shooting. So a 60-40 percentage for the attacker was MUCH too low.

In Game 2, I played the allies again, but his time with a much larger force. At least twice as big in Infantry and Armour with some Air support. The Germans were this time defending a town, and had much the same kind of force as game 1. The game was much closer, but again the movement took allot of the time. I still lost, but it was a much closer battle, although the defender got to take allot of shots.

This is Game 3's report.

David, overlooking the battlefield. The objective was for either side to get to the downed reconnaissance Spitfire and get the images from the camera before the others. The Germans will setup in town, and the British in the fields outside of town.

The objective was chosen to hopefully make for a quicker game, as I have found in the 3 previous games that it was a slow ruleset to play and you needed allot of time play. As I only had 3 hours for his game, I was hoping that by having both forces "forced" to move that it would speed up the process.

The Germans force consisted of a Platoon of 12th SS infantry, MG42 MMG, a halftrack and a Tiger tank. Here is 1st squad moving behind the halftrack. They are rated as Elite.

Here's what happened in the game session (click on the first image to begin):

1st squad moving behind the halftrack

2nd and 3rd squad moving up.

The Tiger enters play.. somewhat blurry !

he downed Spitfire. The SS wanted to see what photos it had taken of their rear areas, and the British have been instructed to recover the film at all costs.

The British force consisted of 3 Sherman's, 1 Sherman firefly, 1 recce Cromwell and 2 platoons of British Infantry. They are rated as Good regulars.

A close up of the just finished 2nd platoon.

PSC plastic Shermans....man I love these plastic models.

The Tiger moving past the church looking for some targets

Moving up to take up "engage" orders.

David's 1st platoon had a HARD time moving up through the wheat fields. Constant rolls of 1 or 2 made the first 9 inches of movement take an hour to play!! Yikes!

David moves up his Firefly to take up engage orders along the hedge.

Two other Shermans move out with the infantry

Another of David's Shermans moves up to get a shot off on the spotted Tiger

A shot of the two British tanks trading shots with the Tiger

First kill to the Tiger: rolling 12 attack dice vs 6 defence dice is a hard thing for the British Armour to overcome.

My wife's 2nd Platoon making better progress on the left flank. Her tanks are moving around the flank as well.

More slow movement by David's 1st platoon

A shot of the German MG42 crew moving up to the top floor of the hotel overlooking the objective. I was hoping that they would control the space around the objective thereby allowing my infantry to reach it first.

The Tiger takes out another Sherman at range. Five Sherman shots bounce off the frontal armour of the Tiger, while at a two shot, two kill ratio for it. It is a powerful machine, and I like how the rules allow this powerful machine feel powerful.

After an hour and a half, David's 1st Platoon enters the forest close to the church.

2nd Platoon running from cover to cover. The rules for movement based on actions really make things like running for cover, feel like running for cover!

After taking out the half-track, and having two shots bounce off the Tiger, my wife decides to unload the H.E into my arriving Hitler Youth. Her 1st squad of 2nd Platoon arrives to the side of the objective.

We had to end the game here, as it had taken 3 and a half hours for the forces to get close to the objective and we simply did not have time to continue. David said he liked the game and we decided to finish the rest of the game next Saturday...

Editor's Note: Bagration isn't using Blinds for some reason...and that has slowed the game down immensely, particularly in such heavy terrain.

Fast forward to this Saturday and David returned to take up arms again...

I move out my 2nd SS squad

David's recce Cromwell starts its slow push towards the court yard of the church. His infantry not far behind.

I needed to do something quick to stop myself from getting badly outflanked so I decided to divert from the objective and try to flank David's force. I only managed to pin one of his squads. It did not help much, but it did take the pressure of this flank for about two turns.

My Tiger adjusts itself into town and takes a couple of shots at the remaining Shermans. I only managed to immobilize one.

David's 1st platoon "flanks" my flankers and mows them down.

My 3rd SS squad has taken several H.E rounds and is in bad shape. I withdraw them hoping to rally off most of their shock.

After dealing with the SS flanking squad, David resumes his assault of the Church.

Cromwell breaks down the wall and gets ready to pound the SS infantry who have taken shelter inside.

My wife decides enough is enough and she launches her attack on the objective!

David starts to gather his platoon for an all out assault.

I somehow get the card I needed and I launch my Panzerfaust into front of the Cromwell: 11 dice vs 7 and I blow it up rolling 4-1!

I also get to take some nice shots out the windows and mow down several of his infantry.

The Tiger starts killing again, knocking out a 3rd Sherman. It also destroys the gun of the remaining Sherman. All British heavy weapons are knocked out! Time for the ATTACK!

The remaining Sherman backs off, raking the church with MG fire while doing so.

A shot of the assault of the Church.

The conclusion.... all the occupying Germans are dead and the British file in.

The next turn they shoot out of the Church, killing seven more SS Hitler Youth. My wife's infantry get the photos from the Spitfire and the game is over!

Losses :

German :- 1 halftrack and 27 infantry

British :- 3 Shermans, 1 Cromwell and 8 Infantry.

Reasons I lost?

The silly loss of my half-track really hurt my chances, as its MG42 could have helped prevent the assault of the church. The Tiger also shot blanks in the middle of the game.. I should have easily destroyed those two Shermans long before I did, and in the time it took to kill them the assault of the Church reached its conclusion.

Reasons Allies won?

The way they used their Infantry was great...the 2 flanking assault divided my already outnumbered force into 2 halves, neither able to support each other. That assault on the Church, even though it was not an objective caused me to fight were I did not need to fight. Letting the other Allied platoon reach the objective without resistance.

The Rules?

Pros :- 1. Great WW2 feel...probably the best WW2 feeling company level game I have ever played. 2. Good mechanics that are easily learned. 3. Great support online. 4. Cards give tension 5. The use of actions give you simple but strategic gameplay

Cons :- 1. The game is a slow game...I like slow, but not that slow. Perhaps things will speed up the more I play. 2. An appendix was BADLY needed.